“Well
my friends are gone,
And my hair is grey.
I ache in the places,
Where I used to play.”
From the Leonard Cohen song, “Tower of
song”
Around the world, the doors of bunkers
are opening. Beautiful faces, talented
fingers grasping prized guitars can be seen emerging once more
into the sunlight. Any celebrities and
musicians who hid themselves underground when they saw how many famous people
were dying in 2016 can come out. They
can walk in the world with confidence again now that we have moved into 2017.
David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, and
Carrie Fisher were some of the big names to die last year. Many commentators pointed out the unusual number
of celebrity deaths. It seemed like a
cursed year. Famous people could be forgiven
for taking extra care: reducing the amount of illegal drugs they used, never
mixing beer with wine, always looking left and right before crossing the road,
and moving to a bunker.
I don’t mean to make fun of anyone’s
death. I was a big fan of the original
Star Wars, and of all the musicians I mentioned, especially David Bowie.
But it is interesting to wonder whether
2016 was a statistical freak. Or
will a similar number of celebrities die in 2017? The number of famous people increased hugely
from the 1960s. New pop musicians
started appearing with dizzying regularity as tastes rapidly changed,
and the wide spread of television made many more famous. Fifty years later, perhaps it is only natural
that this group of people is experiencing a higher number of deaths.
So get back in the bunker, and stay off the
heroin. Or go round to Mick Jagger’s
house and switch to whatever drugs he has been using. After having his eighth child at age 73 (with
a 29 year old ballerina), the Rolling Stones frontman seems to have acquired
the secret of living forever.
Vocabulary:
a bunker – an underground shelter, used to
protect people in wartime
to ache – to feel pain
to grasp – to hold tightly
to emerge – to come out
a statistical freak – a random and unusual
event; a random high or low point in some statistics
dizzying – causing dizziness or
light-headedness; of an event, fast moving and confusing
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